Libraries Academic Software Policy

Revised by the Libraries’ Academic Software Review Committee (ASRC), December 2025

This policy governs JMU Libraries procures academic software to support University curriculum and research. Departments, faculty, and researchers requesting an institutional license for academic software with broad campus and/or curricular use should follow these guidelines and submit a request via the Libraries’ Academic Software Questionnaire. All academic software acquisitions initiated by the Libraries for campus-wide use will adhere to these guidelines.

Demand

• There should be broad curricular and research interest in the software to be acquired. To maximize impact, we strive to acquire academic software licenses useful to the largest number of people, and prioritization will be given to requests that meet that requirement.
• Software requests that do not support the wider campus community or those with restrictive license terms should be referred to the academic department, school, college, or other entity from which the need arises.
• Software currently being used for broad class instruction, particularly for general education courses, will be given priority.
• Access should not be restricted by college, school or department if purchased by JMU Libraries.
• “Single user” licenses will not be purchased (e.g., iTunes model). That is, if only a single user (or project team) can use the software based on restrictive license terms or technical requirements, the Libraries cannot purchase the software.
• The Libraries will review usage statistics annually, where available, and after consultation with the requestor(s) or other stakeholders, may choose to discontinue a software license.

Guidelines

• Software must be actively maintained and recently updated by the vendor.
• Software should be in full production release (e.g., not a beta version).
• Software must work within the current campus environment.
• Software must meet Title II accessibility standards.
• Software must meet all JMU Campus Technology standards and pass a risk assessment. See:
  • Policy 1201 Information Technology Resource Management
  • Policy 1202 Information Systems Implementation & Policy Management
  • Policy 1204 Information Security
  • Policy 1205 Data Stewardship
  • Policy 1214 University Information Technology Security Program
  • Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT)
• Product license must be institutional.
• Vendor must be willing to sign any relevant addendum and to strike or add terms and conditions of license at the request of JMU Libraries, Procurement, and/or Technology.
• Solutions addressing unmet needs will be prioritized, with a commitment to deprioritize acquisitions duplicative of existing solutions deemed suitable for the intended purpose. See the University’s Available Software or Departmental Software pages for more information about available and approved software.
• Individual support for licensed software is generally through the vendor and support information for each software is provided in the applicable individual software download pages linked from the “Available Software” sections of JMU’s Software Services website. (Example: NVivo)

Procurement

• Purchase decisions will be made based on availability of funds, quality of product and need.
• Cost-sharing agreements with other units on campus may be investigated.
• Purchase decisions will be made by the Libraries’ Academic Software Review Committee and will adhere to all University and Commonwealth of Virginia Procurement requirements.
• All purchases will be made within specified JMU Procurement guidelines.

If the technology need does not meet these Academic Software Policy Guidelines the request should be submitted to your academic department and/or via IT’s Technology Solution Request (TSR).

Source of Authority: Academic Software Review Committee (ASRC)